Recent Articles

“Congress made a serious drafting error in the health-overhaul law when it said that subsidies could be delivered through state exchanges but not through any federal fallback exchanges… The Obama administration has been trying an end-run around the problem by ordering the IRS to simply say in its proposed regulations that the subsidies can be delivered through either type of exchange. This is a big issue because a growing number of states are refusing to create exchanges. If they don’t, the feds can come in and set one up, but these will be relatively useless if they can’t deliver subsidies.”

“The goal is to keep the spotlight on other controversial aspects of the healthcare law while the Supreme Court rules on the unpopular individual mandate. Republicans see this as a winning strategy, and appear to be supported in this assessment by the latest Kaiser Health tracking polls. They show the law continues to be unpopular, with 44 percent of Americans saying they have a negative view of the law versus 37 percent who support it.”

“New Hampshire has a high percentage of Medicare Advantage enrollees. Last month, 7,600 of them received notices that their coverage was being cancelled. Obamacare and another federal law passed in 2008, the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act, are killing Medicare Advantage to steer senior citizens back into regular Medicare, which offers fewer choices and is more heavily controlled from Washington.
As a result, thousands of Granite State seniors are being forced to switch doctors because they have to switch coverage.”

“So clearly President Obama’s key promise will
be broken after the law fully takes effect. But the
deterioration in coverage already has begun as
many people already are losing the coverage they have now as health insurers are dropping out
of markets in many states. Some of the carriers
are exiting because of onerous state regulations,
others are victims of a faltering economy, but
the cascade has been accelerated by the rules that
already have taken effect and the many more that
are to come as a result of PPACA.”

“A new Obama administration rule could drive out of the market the low-cost, high deductible plans that are supposed to be available under ObamaCare. That would likely mean a sharp jump in taxpayer subsidies. The problem stems in large part from contradictions in the hastily written health care overhaul.”

“In an economic climate of increasing uncertainties, Puzder says, one certainty is that many businesses now marginally profitable will disappear when Obamacare causes that margin to disappear. A second certainty is that ’employers everywhere will be looking to reduce labor content in their business models as Obamacare makes employees unambiguously more expensive.'”

“The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 33-17 to repeal the healthcare reform law’s long-term care CLASS Act on Wednesday, setting up a possible vote by the full House by year’s end. Democrats stayed largely united in support of the program, which the Obama administration has put on hold because it says it can’t find a way to make it solvent. Only three Democrats – Reps. Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike Ross (Ark.) and John Barrow (Ga.) – voted to repeal the program; all three had voted against the healthcare reform law last year.”

“Voters want the Supreme Court to overturn President Obama’s healthcare law, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
The survey showed 48 percent support for the court striking down the healthcare law, compared to 40 percent who said the court should uphold it.”

“President Barack Obama is using passage of the health-care law to help him get re-elected. He’s just not making the sales pitch in public… Since July, the president has refrained at six news conferences from discussing the health-care measure that became a major issue in the 2010 midterm elections in which the Democrats lost control of the House.”

“A loophole in the federal health care overhaul would allow many employers to game the system by dumping their sicker employees onto public health insurance exchanges, according to two University of Minnesota law professors. They say the loophole could have dire consequences for the financial health of the exchanges, which are a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care law. The online marketplaces are intended to make it easier to comparison shop for health plans and also to expand access to coverage for the uninsured.”